"Were you seen?"
Lin Wan rushed over immediately, grabbing a damp towel and wiping the grime and rust off Silas's fur.
Silas shook his head.
No time for comfort.
He moved straight to the table—
Where the cruise ship schematics were spread out.
His paw slammed down—
On one point.
Engine Room. Hidden Chamber.
Then he lifted his paw—
Paused mid-air.
Thinking.
How to translate everything he had just seen—
Into something humans could understand.
Lin Wan reacted instantly.
Tablet. Stylus. Drawing mode.
"Show me."
Silas glanced at her—
Then nodded.
His paw touched the screen.
Clumsy—
But precise.
Line by line.
Symbol by symbol.
A container.
Inside—
A pulsing mass.
He wrote:
P-07
Suppression Factor
Activity: 73%
An arrow—
To a date.
Two days later.
He added:
Ark Harbor
Reverse Flow Program
Target: 80%
Another sketch.
A tank.
Water.
Something inside.
He wrote:
Guest
Aquarium
Stable
Then—
An eye.
Watching.
Messenger
Monitoring anomalies
Then—
A cross.
Sharp.
Cold.
Cleanup Protocol
Husky + companions
Silas paused.
Then—
Drew it.
That thing.
The creature from the vent.
Not quite a cat.
Not quite anything.
A question mark.
Then—
Arrows.
Guest?
Messenger?
Then—
One final arrow—
Pointing to himself.
!
Silence.
The room grew heavy.
Chen Lin and Old Wu stared at the screen.
Faces darkening.
"P-07…" Chen Lin spoke slowly.
"An active biological construct."
"Requires constant suppression to remain stable."
"They're transporting it to Ark Harbor… for something called the Reverse Flow Program."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Sounds like implantation. Or activation."
Old Wu tapped the map.
"Ark Harbor isn't a public port."
"It's a private offshore facility. Jointly controlled by multiple biotech corporations."
"No jurisdiction."
"No oversight."
"A perfect black site."
Lin Wan clenched her fists.
"We can't let them get there."
"Not with that thing."
"And not with whatever that 'Guest' is."
Silas nodded.
His blue eyes burned—
Cold.
Focused.
He tapped the word:
Cleanup
Then—
Tapped himself.
Then—
Drew a shield.
Around—
Lin Wan.
Iron Fang.
Flash.
Boulder.
Lynx.
Simple.
Clear.
If they move—
We fight.
Protect.
Destroy the plan.
Chen Lin exhaled slowly.
"Head-on confrontation… we lose."
"This is their territory."
"They have armed personnel."
"And possibly more… like that thing you encountered."
Silas didn't respond.
He was already thinking ahead.
Lin Wan suddenly spoke.
"What about the parade?"
Both men looked at her.
"Tomorrow."
"The full-ship pet parade and partner showcase."
"Maximum crowd density."
"Maximum chaos."
Her eyes lit up.
"That's our cover."
Silas turned.
Looked at her.
Then—
At the event layout.
Routes.
Crowd flow.
Access points.
Restricted zone proximity.
A plan—
Started forming.
Not just infiltration.
Not just sabotage.
Something bigger.
Something—
Insane.
Silas's pupils narrowed.
If chaos was the key—
Then why not—
Turn it into a storm?
Not just their team.
The entire ship.
Every pet.
Every animal.
A chain reaction.
A riot.
A controlled—
Explosion.
Lin Wan stared at him.
"You're not thinking…"
Silas lowered his paw.
Then wrote—
One word.
Signal.
Then—
A ripple.
Expanding outward.
Across the ship.
Pet zones.
Cabins.
Activity decks.
All marked.
Chen Lin's breath hitched.
"You want to…"
Old Wu finished it.
"Trigger them."
Silas met their eyes.
Calm.
Certain.
Pheromones.
A broadcast.
A call.
Gather.
Excite.
Move.
Not random chaos—
Directed chaos.
Weaponized instinct.
Chen Lin ran a hand through his hair.
"That's…"
"Insane."
Old Wu stared at Silas—
Then slowly nodded.
"…Possible."
Both turned to him.
"I'll need a base compound."
"A trigger matrix."
"And—"
He locked eyes with Silas.
"Your scent."
"The one that makes other animals follow you."
Silas didn't hesitate.
He nodded.
Old Wu continued:
"I can amplify it."
"Turn it into a broadcastable pheromone agent."
"But timing must be exact."
"Release points must be precise."
"And we'll need secondary triggers—sound or visual cues."
"To avoid panic spillover into humans."
Chen Lin exhaled.
Then—
Smiled.
A dangerous smile.
"Then we do it."
"This is our only window."
"Before Ark Harbor."
"Before they disappear."
Plans exploded into motion.
Old Wu locked himself in the lab—
Extracting samples.
Refining compounds.
Engineering control parameters.
Chen Lin mapped routes—
Entry points.
Fallback paths.
Disruption zones.
Lin Wan coordinated—
Timing.
Positions.
Behavior triggers.
Silas—
Observed.
Calculated.
Prepared.
And the pack—
Felt it.
Iron Fang.
Flash.
Boulder.
Lynx.
Training harder.
Moving sharper.
Eyes burning with anticipation—
And something else.
War.
That encounter in the vent—
Was the spark.
Now—
The waves were spreading.
And soon—
They would become a storm.
Silas stood on the balcony.
The ocean stretched endlessly ahead.
Dark.
Silent.
Far in the distance—
A faint glow.
Ark Harbor.
His tail swayed once.
Slow.
Measured.
Tomorrow—
Everything changes.
A riot.
A hunt.
A war.
Led by—
A dog.
Hunter—
Or prey?
By sunrise—
The answer—
Will be written.
In chaos.